


Sword Song

by GhostCwtch



Series: JaegerconBingo Fills [17]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Brotp, Gen, Getting to know you, I can only apologize, terrible Japanese
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-17
Updated: 2013-08-17
Packaged: 2017-12-23 18:58:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/929945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostCwtch/pseuds/GhostCwtch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mako's answer when Raleigh asks her, "What do you love?" surprises him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sword Song

**Author's Note:**

> My fill for "Mess Hall."
> 
> I can only apologize for the Japanese. It's meant to say basically "What do you love/like?" but I only took a couple of classes in Japanese and they were about 4 years ago now, so my knowledge of that language is extremely limited at best.

That first meal after their disastrous Drift, when he can feel Mako's heart beat thudding against his ribs and has the disturbingly blue jello on his tray, the MEss Hall goes silent as he walks in. He stops, the echo of Mako's steps in his nerves letting him look up to meet her eyes across the hall.  
  
Every one is staring.  
  
Their eyes move back and forth between him and Mako like it's a tennis match and it's not even a question of finding a table and eating in here, but how fast they can retreat without making it look like another defeat. There's no discussion, but they don't need it to know that the balcony where she first showed him the new life of Gipsy Danger is where they're going to go.  
  
It's not quite, not really, but there aren't stares and they can talk without worrying about being overheard. There are no Jaegers left to fill the docks either side of them and right now all the techs are putting noses to grindstones, getting the few last Jaegers ready for the final assault in a few days time.   
  
The chance to talk freely is invaluable. Yancy and he had a whole lifetime of shared memories and brotherly bond to fall back on in the Drift. As compatible as he and Mako are, probably more compatible than he was with Yancy really, they've only known each other for a few days.  
  
His Japanese isn't great, though enough time Drifting with Mako will take care of that. For now he asks, with a passable accent, "何をだいすきですか?"  
  
Her reply surprises him. He'd seen a little of her family from her memories, but nothing of the crafting of swords. Nothing to imply that her family was linked to that ancient tradition. Certainly nothing that said her father had promised to teach her, and that the first lesson would begin once they returned from the city.  
  
She learned the love of the craft at her father's knee, but Onibaba took that dream away along with the rest of her small world in one fell swoop. She doesn't cry as she tells him. She doesn't look at him, just recites the facts and stares deep into Gipsy's heart. She stares into the fire of that great heart and he can see her forging herself into a sword, the steel of herself folded over and over again, growing stronger with each hammer blow until she shines with it.  
  
Raleigh has never seen someone so beautiful.


End file.
